Fabric dampener

ABSTRACT

THIS INVENTION IS DIRECTED TO A DAMPENER FOR A CONTINUOUSLY ADVANCING FABRIC WEB AND INCLUDES A PAIR OF VERTICALLY ALIGNED ROLLS THAT CARRY AN ENDLESS MESH BELT THAT HAS ONE LOOP PARTLY IMMERSED IN WATER. A PAIR OF STRIPPER ROLLS REMOVE EXCESS WATER FROM THE PICK UP FLIGHT OF THE   BELT AND THE RETAINED WATER IS BLOWN AS A FINE MIST FROM THE BELT ONTO THE FABRIC WEB BY A MULTIPLICITY OF AIR JETS LOCATED ABOVE THE STRIPPER ROLLS.

Oct. 26,1971 A.J BAYNE ETAL 3,614,880

mama DAMPENER Filed March :5, 1969 INV/iN'lORS PAUL N. W/NBERG ALEXANDER J. zSAYA/f tes- 3,614,880 FABRIC DAMPENER Alexander J. Bayne, Schenectady, and Paul N. Winberg, Hempstead, N.Y., assignors to Cluett, Peabody 8: (30., Inc., Troy, N .Y.

Filed Mar. 3, 1969, Ser. No. 803,693 Int. Cl. D06f 35/00; 1305c /00 US. Cl. 68-205 R tilted 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE INVENTION This invention relates generally to new and useful improvements in liquid sprayers and particularly seeks to provide a novel device for uniformly spraying a continuously advancing woven textile web with water.

Most woven textiles, particularly those made from natural fibers, will shrink when washed. Accordingly, it has become common practice to test wash a fabric sample from a given run to determine the amount of shrinkage it undergoes and then subjecting the remainder of the run to a sequential moisture and longitudinal compressiveshrinking to reduce the residual shrinkage substantially to zero prior to any converting operations. This shrinking operation is generally continuous, and in its simplest form a continuously advancing fabric web is first directly sprayed with water from multiple nozzles, then passed through a compressive shrinking machine after which it is dried and plaited as an incident to subsequent processing or converting operations.

It has been found that the direct spraying of water onto the fabric often creates undesirable results such as the deposition of scattered large droplets of water on the fabric, non-uniform distribution of the water due to overlapping or separated cones of spray, and a considerable difiiculty in applying the exact amount of water required for the desired moisture pick up. However, a fabric dampener constructed in accordance with this invention overcomes the above discussed problems. Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a dampener for a continuously advancing fabric web that is capable of applying a fine uniform mist of water thereto in a completely uniform and controllable manner.

Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated that includes a vertically oriented endless driven belt formed from a suitable mesh material and carried by a pair of vertically aligned support rolls, the lower roll of which is partly immersed in a water tank to enable the belt to continuously pick up water therefrom.

Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated in which the pick up flight of the endless belt is disposed adjacent to the fabric to be dampened and an air jet located within the belt is used to blow water particles from the belt onto the fabric as a fine mist having a uniform distribution.

Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated that includes a pair of opposed stripper rolls located beneath the air jet unit and which engage opposite faces of the pick up flight of the belt to regulate the amount of water carried by the belt by stripping off any excess water.

3,614,889 Patented Oct. 26, 1971 A further object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated that includes a pair of opposed cleaning rolls engageable with the opposite faces of the return flight of the belt.

With these and other objects, the nature of which will be apparent, the invention will be more fully understood by reference to the drawings wherein:

DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a fabric dampener constructed in accordance with this invention; and FIIgICi. 2 is a fragmentary view of the apparatus of The figures are meant to be of a diagrammatic character for the purposes of illustration. Like numerals refer to like elements in the two figures.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings in detail the invention, as illustrated, is embodied in a fabric dampener that includes an open top tank 5 in which a supply of water 6 is maintained at a constant predetermined level. Suitable side frames (not shown) rotatably support a pair of lower and upper vertically aligned spaced rollers respectively designated 7 and 8. The lower roller 7 is partly immersed in the water 6, and the upper roller 8 is adapted to be driven by any suitable variable speed drive.

An endless belt, formed from wire or other suitable mesh material, generally indicated 9, having a pick up flight 10 and a return flight 11, is carried by the rollers 7 and 8. The mesh size of the belt 9 will be determined by the operating conditions of each installation, but typically could be on the order of an x 80 mesh. The width of the belt 9 should be at least as wide as the width of the fabric web to be dampened.

A horizontal air manifold 12, having a length at least coextensive with the width of the belt 9, is secured between the flights of the belt slightly below the upper roller 8 and is provided with a multiplicity of relatively small diameter horizontally spaced orifices 13 that are directed toward the inner face of the pick up flight 10 of the belt.

A pair of horizontally opposed rotating stripper rolls 14, 14 are mounted for engagement with both faces of the belt pick up flight 10 and serve to regulate the amount of water retained on the pick up flight by removing any excess Water.

A pair of horizontally opposed rotating cylindrical brushes 15, 15 are mounted for engagement with both faces of the belt return flight 11 to constantly clean same.

A fabric web A to be dampened passes over a lower guide roll 16, thence vertically upwardly in spaced parallel relation to the belt pick up flight 10 and over an upper guide roll 17 from which it then proceeds to another processing unit such as a compressive shrinking machine. Either or both of the guide rolls 16 and 17 may be driven and either or both of them may be adjustablehorizontally in order to vary the spacing between the fabric web and the pick up flight 10 of the belt. Alternately, the rolls 16 and 17 may be in fixed positions and the dampening unit as a whole may be moved bodily toward or away from the fabric.

In operation the belt 9 picks up water from the tank 5 as it passes around the lower roll 7 and the water-loaded pick up flight 10 then passes between the stripper rolls 14 which remove any excess free water. The pick up flight 10 then continues past the air streams from the air manifold orifices 13 which effectively blows the retained water from the belt as a fine mist that is uniformly deposited on the exposed face of the continuously advancing fabric web A. The return flight 11 of the belt is cleaned continuously by the rotating brushes .15.

As noted above, it is the upper roll 8 that is driven by a variable speed drive, rather than the lower roll 7, in order to keep the belt pick up flight 10 under tension and thus minimize any tendency for it to belly outwardly away from the manifold 12 as it is subjected to the force of the air streams from the orifices 13.

By the proper adjustment of the operating variables such as the water level in the tank 5, the speed and/or mesh size of the belt 9, adjustment of the stripping rolls 14, the air pressure and volume for the manifold 12, the spacing and diameter of the orifices 13 and the speed of the fabric web A, it is possible to deposit, uniformly and reproduceably, a predetermined amount of moisture, for example 5 to 25%, on the fabric at any given speed of fabric advance within a fairly wide range of speeds, say from less than 15 to more than 125 yards per minute. Of course, once these variables are set for any given operating condition no further changes need be made.

We claim:

1. In a machine for uniformly dampening a continuously advancing fabric web prior to compressive shrinking of the web, the combination including, a liquid supply tank, a lower belt supporting roll partly immersed in the liquid carried by said tank, an upper belt supporting roll arranged in vertically spaced parallelism with respect to said lower belt supporting roll, an endless mesh belt carried by said lower and upper supporting rolls and said rolls 50 arranged as to form a pick-up flight of the belt and a return flight of the belt, means to drive at least one of said lower and upper supporting rolls such that said pickup flight of the belt is caused to pick up liquid from said tank, means adjacent said pick-up flight of said belt for blowing liquid from said belt as a fine mist onto the surface of an associated continuously advancing fabric web and means in operative contact with said pick-up flight mesh and below said flowing means for removing excess liquid from said belt prior to the action of said blowing means, and after the point where the belt picks up liquid from the supply tank.

2. The dampening machine of claim 1 in which said liquid blowing means comprises an air manifold provided with a multiplicity of spaced orifices directed at the inner face of said belt.

3. The dampening machine of claim 1 in which said excess liquid removing means comprises a pair of rotating rolls disposed on either side of the pick up flight of said belt and in operative contact therewith.

4. The dampening machine of claim 3 additionally including means for cleaning said belt after the liquid has been blown therefrom.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 including means for advancing said fabric web so that said web is adjacent to the pick-up flight of said mesh belt along a portion of the pick-up flight.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,581,322 4/1926 Reed 1l8325 X 2,150,027 3/1939 DAnnunzlo 26l80 FOREIGN PATENTS 235,214 8/1961 Australia 261-80 JOHN P. MCINTOSH, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 1l8325 

